A ride on Mexico’s longest zipline is an experience to remember

I love beaches, but I get bored quickly and soon look for something a bit more exciting to do. Experiencing a kilometre-long zipline at speeds of 100 km/h through a Mexican jungle qualifies.

The zipline in question is near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and at 1,200 metres in length is the longest in Mexico. (For the record, the longest in the world is in Peru and is more than 2 kilometres long.) I was invited by the Puerto Vallarta Convention and Visitors Bureau to try it.

It’s operated by Vallarta Adventures, a big tour operator in the Pacific coast town that offers a wide variety of activities for tourists . They work with the cruise ships that come to town so they’ve got a steady stream of business. But you don’t have to be a cruise-ship passenger to take advantage of their services. They can easily accommodate independent travellers.

From the beach, you can see the mountains rise up behind Puerto Vallarta. It’s there that the ziplines sit, high in the jungle, several kilometres away from the city.

To get there, Vallarta Adventures ships out their customers in a vintage, military truck where passengers sit face to face on benches in the back. The drive out takes about an hour and gives you a chance to appreciate the rural scenery as you wind your way up into the hills.

The drive into the camp is reminiscent of scenes from the Jurassic Park movies with tourists being driven in open trucks on rough, dirt roads through the jungle. There were no dinosaurs here, but the big zipline was certainly dinosaur-sized in our imaginations as we approached.

Nicknamed Big Papa, the longest zipline is the day’s climax, but the activities that precede it are equally exciting with each providing greater adrenaline rushes than the one before.

The guides are enthusiastic and energetic and do their best to amp up the visitors to have a good time. It works.

While having fun is important to the guides, it’s clear that safety is an even higher priority for them. They start your visit with a safety briefing and some quick training on how to ride a zipline. Unlike some other zipline operators near Puerto Vallarta, this operation uses double cables on all of its ziplines which increases the safety factor. If one ever breaks, you’re attached to a second line.

After a quick hike up a nearby hill, you come to the first zipline of the day. It seems like a challenge, but it’s only a training line and helps you learn the ropes, literally, and helps you get over any fears you may be harbouring.

In no time, you traverse the jungle across a series of other ziplines with each one getting longer and longer. Getting to some of them requires hikes up other hills. As you make your way through the forest, you can hear the din of cicadas buzzing in the heat and watch butterflies the size of a plate fluttering through the trees.

It’s all very photogenic, but you aren’t allowed to take any cameras with you for fear of dropping or breaking them. Don’t worry; a photographer comes along with you to document your adventure and his photos are probably better than any you can take. All of the photos on this page were by them.

All of that hiking and climbing in the humidity is hard work so there are numerous water stations en route to help you stay hydrated.

Eventually, the zipline route comes to an end and you realize that you are 20 metres in the air on a platform in a tree and are walking around as if you’re on a sidewalk back home. To get off the platform, you have to rappel down a rope in mid-air, Mission Impossible style. For some of us, that was more frightening than the ziplines, but we all did it and survived.

The next challenge was the “crazy ladder.” It’s a 22-metre tall rope ladder that twists and turns as you climb up to the platform above. It’s a lot of work and is pretty scary so they make it an optional activity. Of the eight of us in our group, only three took the challenge. It is frightening the higher you go, but the hardest part is simply the exertion required to get to the top. Once you make it to the platform, you are rewarded with another challenge, a five metre walk across a tightrope to the top of the hill where the rest of the party is waiting.

Our arboreal pursuits were done for the day and we turned our attention to another activity that was part of our “extreme adventure” package: driving supercharged Polaris RZR off-road vehicles through a muddy jungle route. You have the option of driving one yourself or being a passenger. I was the only visitor who opted to drive one himself.

Making a racket in the forest with exhaust-spewing go-karts probably doesn’t qualify as eco-tourism, but it certainly is fun. I think the track would make a good Mario Kart level.

It was over all too fast, but I’m certainly glad that I did the driving. The passengers said they had fun, but I think I had more fun than them.

Then it was time to face up to our real fears: Big Papa. Throughout the morning, we’d hear a whooshing sound overhead and stop to look up and see someone flashing by like a missile and wonder what was going through their mind as they flew by.

Two of our group gave in to their fears and chose not to try the ride. No one gave them any grief over it. I think everyone had second thoughts, but this was why we were here.

The hike to the top of the hill was the biggest one yet, but when we got there we could see the valley below. In the distance there appeared to be a pagoda on hill. It seemed so far away that it was hard to tell what is was. Eventually, it dawned on us that it was the other end of the zipline.

Unlike the other ziplines, you don’t control anything on this one. You are strapped into a harness so that you are hanging parallel to the line so you can fly through the air head first, Superman style. The only difference is that unlike flying superheroes, you don’t put your hands in front of you. You hold them to the side of your body. An automatic braking system brings you to a halt at the other side.

After some brief instructions, we were strapped in one at a time and pushed off the edge of the hill.

I was second to launch and let the professionals lash me in. A calm had overtaken me and I had lost any fears that I had. After a few seconds, all I could do was smile. I was rocketing along the line at a breakneck speed, but it felt more like I was flying. The treetops flashed beneath me and I could look around to see what the birds see as they fly by. It was amazing.

As we waited for our companions to take their turns, we’d see each of them landing with the same goofy smiles on their faces. We unanimously agreed that it was an awesome experience and we all wished we could rush back and do it all over again.

“I think we all confronted some fears today,” noted one of my companions. Everyone agreed.

To give you an idea of what the big zipline looks like, here’s a video of my ride:

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